Dissipative tidal effects to next-to-leading order and constraints on the dissipative tidal deformability using gravitational wave data

TL;DR

This paper develops a first post-Newtonian model for dissipative tidal effects in neutron star binaries, enabling the first constraints on individual tidal deformabilities from gravitational wave data, specifically GW170817.

Contribution

It introduces the first PN-accurate equations of motion and waveform model including dissipative tidal effects, allowing for new constraints on neutron star properties from gravitational wave observations.

Findings

Derived 1PN equations of motion with dissipative tides.

Provided the first constraints on individual tidal deformabilities from GW data.

Quantified energy and mass loss effects on orbital dynamics.

Abstract

Dissipative tidal interactions can be used to probe the out-of-equilibrium physics of neutron stars using gravitational wave observations. In this paper, we present the first post-Newtonian (PN) corrections to the orbital dynamics of a binary system containing objects whose tidal interactions have a dissipative contribution. We derive the 1PN-accurate equations of motion in the center-of-mass frame and a generalized energy-balance law that is valid for dissipative tidal interactions. We show how mass and energy loss due to the absorption of orbital energy change the orbital dynamics and derive the next-to-leading order correction to the gravitational wave phase of a binary system in a quasi-circular orbit containing initially non-spinning components. We then use this waveform model to constrain, for the first time, the individual dissipative tidal deformabilities of each of the binary components that generated the GW170817 event using real data. We find that the GW170817 data requires $\Xi_{1} \lesssim 1121$ and $\Xi_{2} \lesssim 1692$ at 90\% confidence, where $\Xi_{1,2}$ are the individual tidal deformabilities of the primary and secondary binary components that produced the GW170817 event.